How come your body burns 2000 calories a day by existing, but running a mile only burns 100 calories?
In: Biology
> ELI5: How come your body burns 2000 calories a day by existing
Because your body generates a lot of heat, and powers a very complex computer that is stored inside your skull.
> but running a mile only burns 100 calories?
Well that number is different for everyone, and it varies according to your own body and how much effort you are exerting. My Garmin tells me that I burn 100 calories for every 1 kilometre that I run, so I would burn 162 calories per mile.
And that would take me around 8 minutes (I’m old, heavy, and slow)
But the most important factor is that whatever you burn while running is IN ADDITION TO whatever your body was buying anyway by being alive (the 2000 calories you mentioned earlier)
Let’s do some maths.
There are 1440 (24 x 60) minutes in a day. If we burn 2000 calories a day that means we burn 1.39 (2000 / 1440) calories per minute assuming that we burn at a constant rate throughout the day.
In the 8 minutes that I take to run a mile, I’ve burned 11.12 (1.39 x 8) calories by existing, and then another 162 on top of that by running. Total 173.12
174.12 / 11.12 = 15.5
So for me, running burns 15.5 times as many calories as existing.
So your use of the word “only” isn’t really justified.
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